BUTTER DEFECTS 507 



churnings of cream in which the small globules, and churnings 

 in which the large globules, respectively, predominated. The 

 large-globule cream churned quickly and yielded a soft, pliable 

 butter that packed readily. The small-globule cream, on the 

 other hand, churned slowly, produced small, round, smooth and 

 hard granules which did not pack readily and which made a 

 very firm, crumbly and brittle butter, from which it was impos- 

 sible to draw a solid plug. 



The second fundamental cause of the tendency of winter 

 butter to be crumbly lies in the feed the cows receive during 

 the winter season. Dry feed and most of the common concen- 

 trates always increase the firmness of butter. If the winter 

 ration contains hay or corn fodder and liberal quantities of such 

 concentrates as cottonseed meal, bran, etc., the butter fat in 

 the cream will contain a relatively small percentage of the fats 

 with low melting point, such as olein, and a relatively high per- 

 centage of the fats with high melting point, such as stearin, 

 palmitin, myristin, etc., and the resulting butter will, therefore, 

 be firm and tend to be crumbly. Potatoes, beets and beet tops, 

 apples and cornsilage also produce high melting fats conducive 

 of firm and crumbly butter. 



Prevention of 'Crumbly Body. It is obvious from the above 

 discussion that the fundamental causes of crumbly butter may 

 be eliminated entirely by a change to winter dairying whereby 

 the cows are so bred that most of them freshen in the fall, yield- 

 ing milk in which the large globules predominate; and by the 

 addition to the feed ration of such feeds as have a tendency to 

 produce butter fat of a lower melting point, such as linseed meal, 

 glutenfeed, etc. 



The dairy man who makes butter on the farm has the fac- 

 tors of period of lactation and feed largely under his control and, 

 therefore, is in a position to avoid crumbly butter by the intel- 

 ligent adjustment of these factors. The average creamery which 

 draws its cream supply from a large number of farms which are 

 often scattered over a wide area, cannot hope for relief from 

 crumbly butter by any efforts to remove these fundamental 

 causes, and must, therefore, aim to minimize their effect by 

 modifications in the process of manufacture. 



The only means available to the creamery to prevent crum- 



